The present invention relates to a method for continuously determining the distance between a tip of an electrode and a steel bath level in an electric arc furnace.
Currently, in electric arc furnaces, the level of the electrode tip at a particular time during the melting process is not known with sufficient accuracy. Moreover, the level of the steel bath at the end of a melting process is also not known with sufficient accuracy.
Among other things, the inability to know the level of the electrode tip and the level of the steel bath results from the fact that the electrodes having varying lengths, there are different clamping heights of the electrodes and different electrode consumptions.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method with which the above-described disadvantages can be largely minimized.
This objective is accomplished by carrying out two special length measurements and subsequently evaluating the results for the purpose of continuously determining the distance between a tip of the electrode and a level of the bath of the preceding melt in the electric arc furnace.
More specifically, in a method in accordance with the invention, a length measuring system capable of providing a length measurement which correlates to a height of the electrode in the furnace is provided along with an optical measuring system capable of generating a horizontal beam path which is arranged at a predetermined vertical distance from a reference point. A first length measurement of the electrode is performed at the end of each melt conducted in the electric arc furnace by moving the electrode toward the steel bath until a predetermined stopping criterion of the electrode tip is reached and then determining and storing a first value of the length measuring system. A second length measurement is performed by moving the electrode in a direction away from the steel bath until the electrode tip interrupts the horizontal beam path generated by the optical measuring system and then determining and storing a second value of the length measuring system. The distance between the electrode tip and the level of the steel bath can be determined from the first and second values.